Free Iraq

10/12/05 Debate Between Paul Williams (former State Dep. Lawyer), who advised the chairman of the constitutional committee & Mark Levine, an associate professor of history at the University of California at Irvine.

MARK LEVINE: .."So if we really look at the four main things that were approved, putting in a statement about the constitution guaranteeing unity, Arabic being an official language in Kurdistan, the de-Baathification process and the special committee that will hopefully allow amendments that are more amenable to Sunnis to come through, three out of the four really are meaningless on the ground or actually have very little chance of changing the constitution in the long run…

..."they're included to be mostly symbolic. For example, if we look at the statement that the constitution reflects the unity of Iraq, that's a very important symbolic statement, but on the ground if the violence continues, it's really meaningless.
If we look at the Arabic being an official language in Kurdistan, anyone that's been to Israel knows Arabic is an official language in Israel, but without the backing of the full culture, it really is not part of the larger public culture, and, in fact, is marginalized. So you'll see Arabs who are in Kurdistan really not seeing any real improvement in their lives."...

RAY SUAREZ (Moderator): President Talabani described the concessions as substantial. Do you agree with the professor that they don't really amount to much?

PAUL WILLIAMS: "They're minor concessions, but they're very, very important concessions. Iraq is a tripod. It must operate with all three legs: the Shia, the Kurd and the Sunni. Over the summer the Sunni were lost because they tried to go too far, both the Shia and the Kurds in bringing too many of the Sunnis in and the Sunnis in terms of their demands."...

MARK LEVINE:..." but here's the problem: You can't be minor but also be very important. In order to be really important and substantive, you have to be major. And what I really fear is a repeat of the Oslo process between Israel and the Palestinians where the really hard negotiations were constantly pushed off on the assumption that if you could carry people along, you'll build momentum for hard compromises later on."...

MARK LEVINE :.."Without fundamentally changing the equation, especially addressing issues like the permanent presence of US troops or at least long-term basing rights, which isn't touched in the constitution, wholesale privatization of the economy, which has caused a lot of damage for average Iraqis, really who is going to manage and control the oil industry; these are things that matter to average Iraqis which aren't even on the table. And when you put them together with the other issues that weren't touched, it's hard for me to understand how in the long run they're going to result in something positive, even though I agree that they'll probably be enough to get the constitution passed. "......

"http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/july-dec05/iraq_10-12.html"
 

Abu Hasan, I caught a portion of the PBS discussion that you've posted. Though Mark Levine's points were good, the discussion - quite an academic affair - totally ignored the devastation wrought upon Iraq for reasons unmentionable. In the end, what we had was two Americans discussing an American "inspired" document to which Iraqis are meant this Saturday to consent. Context was totally lacking. My guess is that program viewers probably will believe the Iraqi constitution is the true product of a deliberative democratic process.
 

Tariq Ali, The Guardian, Pakistan will not forget: "Why have US, German and British forces in Afghanistan not been mobilised to save lives?" [ . . . ]

"The situation in the north-west of the country is much worse than has been reported. . . .Things look bad here this week, but they will look worse when rescue teams arrive in areas still out of reach."
 

Christian Science Monitor, Pentagon wants new spying powers in US: "Claiming it needs greater latitude for the war on terror, the US Senate Intelligence Committee has approved a request from the Pentagon for the right to 'covertly' gather intelligence on US citizens in order to determine whether they can recruit them as informants, without telling them that they are doing so on behalf of the US government. Reuters reported Friday that the Pentagon said the measure, which is aimed at the Muslim community in the US, could help them fight insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan."
 

Hi Evelyn

Most of Mark Levine's comments effectively echoed those of Juan Cole, who is (perhaps) a semi frequent guest on PBS' News Hour. I hope that some viewers watching both Professors, and others like them would glean from these discussions that the constitution, like this year's January elections is a sham. Here is how the discussion ended:


RAY SUAREZ: "Can that work, Professor, getting what Paul Williams calls a political do-over, still getting a passed constitution on Saturday but then at least opening a process to talk about some of the hard things that have to be done?"


MARK LEVINE: "Well, then you get a situation, whereas in January most Iraqis didn't know exactly whom they were voting for when they voted in the elections -- now you have Iraqis not knowing what they're voting for in terms if they're voting for a constitution that could be fundamentally altered.

But, beyond that, really there's only one shot at doing this according to the amendment that I saw. So there is one shot in which it's going to focus, apparently, I didn't know this, mostly on issues related to federalism, so so many other issues important to Sunnis are not going to be on the board to be dealt with.

It's still hard for me to understand how this is going to bring in the majority of Sunnis. Remember, the Iraqi Islamic Party may describe itself as a major Islamic party -- this is a Sunni party that participated in these negotiations -- but certainly it's by no means the major or even the biggest party Sunni Islamic force in the country. And most of those are still either sitting out or actively hostile to this process."

RAY SUAREZ: Professor Levine, Paul Williams, thank you both.

All the best,
 

Abu Hasan,
Thanks for the further comment. I note that Saturday night CNN is going to have a big Iraqi constitution wrap-up special. (Reporting live from Baghdad?) Stay tuned.
 

TRUTH MATTERS *
Malcom Lagauche, ALICE IS STILL CONFUSED: "We are on the verge of possibly the most ludicrous and illegitimate trials in history: those of Saddam Hussein and other leaders of the Iraqi Ba’ath Socialist Party.

"'He gasses his own people,' is a term used since 1990 about Saddam Hussein. The world has heard it time and time again. However, few have delved into the truth of the matter.

"That one sentence is so powerful that it allowed the world to turn its back on the plight of Iraq and its people for more than a decade. ...

"If Saddam Hussein and his assistants are condemned in a kangaroo court of this incident without proper investigation, a travesty will occur. If proper proof is given to substantiate the claim, then justice will prevail. ...

"Months ago, Al-Jazeera News ran an article by an Iraqi professor who has researched the Halabja incident in detail. He brings up many points that have been recently exposed, but he mentions new aspects of which I, and many people, were unaware. Because the start of President Saddam Hussein’s trial is less than a week away, it is time for this piece to be re-published."

"What happened in Kurdish Halabja?

"In 1993, an organisation was established in Israel called The Kurdish Israeli Friendship League founded by a Jewish Kurd called Moti Zaken, who originally immigrated from Zakho, Iraq, and worked closely with the American Zionist lobby in the US.

"His efforts ended in 1996 in the establishment of the Washington Kurdish Institute, an organisation founded with the financial help and supervision of the Zionist Mike Amitay.

"Mike Amitay is the son of Morris Amitay, a long-time legislative assistant in Congress and lobbyist for the influential American Israeli Public Affairs Committee.

"Amitay junior is an adviser to Frank Gaffney's Centre for Security Policy and the former vice-chairman of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), a US-based pro-Israeli Likud advocacy outfit that specialises in connecting US military brass to their counterparts in the Israeli armed forces.

"JINSA associates include Dick Cheney, John Bolton, Douglas Feith, and Richard Perle. A group of Kurdish figures known for their connection with the Israeli Mossad manage the Washington Kurdish Institute. ...

"Such organisations have devoted themselves to championing the claims that the Iraqi army bombed Kurdish villages with chemical agents throughout 1988."

[ . . . ]
--------------------------

* (And here, a personal note. Several months ago, upon posting one of Malcom Lagauche's articles, I referred to him, tongue-in-cheek, as "that dreadful Malcom Lagauche". In fact, greatly admiring Malcom's unflinching pursuit of truth, I am proud to know I inhabit his state! Put another way, the integrity of his work shines as an antidote to some of the unedifying poison finding its way into the public domain.)
 

Kurt Nimmo, Al-Qaeda and the Dubious Confederacy of Evil: "It is simply astounding how many videos and audio tapes and letters slip through al-Qaeda’s fingers and into the hands of the Pentagon, the State Department, and various Bushites and intelligence factotums. Recall the Osama dinner party video found in Afghanistan and the 'al-Qaeda in Iraq' chemical weapons plant left behind in Fallujah. Now we have a letter purportedly from Ayman al-Zawahri to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, 'acquired during U.S. operations in Iraq,' according to the Associated Press. How this supposed letter was 'acquired' is not revealed. Maybe Ayman didn’t affix the correct postage. Or maybe Abu didn’t leave a change of address.

"Ayman’s letter to Abu, issued for public consumption by an inherently deceptive office of 'national intelligence,' promises to 'extend the jihad wave to the secular countries neighboring Iraq' and eventually 'clash with Israel, because Israel was established only to challenge any new Islamic entity.' Not even Ayman al-Zawahri, reputedly not the sharpest knife in the drawer (before he was killed in northern Iraq), wouldn’t make a statement this stupid and inflammatory, playing right into the hand of the pro-Zionist neocons, who keep telling us scary Muslims want to kill the Jews and take over the world and install a global caliphate and force all of us—all 6 billion humans on the earth—to convert to Islam or have our heads sheared off like Nick Berg (the video supposedly showing Berg’s decapitation turns out to be highly suspect, according to medical experts).

"All of this is simply more of the same—an unrelenting propaganda campaign designed to convince us through fear and psychological intimidation that the true enemy of 'democracy' is not a corrupt government bought lock, stock, and barrel by transnational neolib corporations, not a dictatorial president bent on destroying the Constitution and installing a police state (in reaction to fake flu pandemics), but a wholly ridiculous threat posed by a handful of fanatical and medieval Muslims (who would be nothing without the husbandry of the CIA, British intelligence, and the ISI)."
 

Iraqi Resistance Reports Paint Grim Picture

Why Bush Is After Chavez - 1.4 TRILLION Barrels Of Oil (plus, possibly, democracy, though a good thing, should only be taken so far!)
 

Arafat death report inconclusive

Chavez ousts US missionary group: "Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has ordered a US-based Christian missionary group working with indigenous tribes to leave the country, accusing the organisation of imperialist infiltration and links to the CIA."
 

"Within 10 days of arriving in Australia, the new French Ambassador says the invasion of Iraq is to blame for breeding terrorism around the world.": "I don't think it's possible to have any progress in democracy with foreign troops on your territory. I think this is the French experience."
 

This is a message from a friend which I thought worthy as a Comment, for posterity sake:

"Hello Imad,
Thank you for reposting. We received a lot of reactions already, most of them negative. It's unbelievable how the "Western" average "progressive" human rights activist looks at the world only from his own Western perspective. It makes me angry sometimes, this superiority feeling, not to be able to have an objective look at the world as it id today, lack of ability to have some empathy (to walk a mile in the shoes of an Iraqi). Dahr Jamail, who distributed through his dispatch also received a very negative reaction from an AI responsible.

So there's still a lot of work to be done before something can be achieved. Schizophrenic American society, as you wrote in one of your recent mails, is indeed a good way to describe the situation. Head in the sand, not being able to take any criticism on their rotten society: amazing. Europe (who invented colonialism, remember) should not give lessons though. But it may very well be that we suffered so much loss of human life in the 20th century, so much destruction, that we temporarily have enough of wars. The US, the UK have never experienced occupation on their territories, so they have no collective memory about what it means to live under bombs, to be occupied. Neither do they understand that when there is occupation, there will be resistance.

And thanks for the daily messages. They're always very good."
 

A Citizen of Mosul, We and the Constitution: "Two days left before the vote for the constitution, but till now no body in Mosul have seen a copy of it which supposed to be distributed to the population before the referendum.

"In addition till now we and our neighbors don't know yet the place where to vote which is necessory to be known in advance since there is a curfew for all vehicles started from Wednesday Oct 12 at 10 pm till monday Oct 17 at 5 am. That mean no body can use a car for transportation from place to place inside the city, the schools, the University and all the governmental offices are closed for 4 days.

"Saleh al-Mutlaq, head of the National Dialogue Council, stated that the decision of the Sunni Arabs is based on pure scientific grounds. This is the outcome of several meetings between prominent Sunni figures and other political blocs opposed to the constitution. As the constitution translates into the division of the country and the elimination of Iraq’s Arab identity, Al-Mutlaq says, the Sunni Arabs should combat this constitution by all possible peaceful means. In his eyes, only if the issue of federalism, for example, is postponed for future negotiations can this position be altered. This is a clear shift in the Sunnis’ stand: from boycotting the referendum to participating with a clear 'No' vote."

"Yesterday night there was a news from the Iraqi Islamic party, who declared that he will share in the vote on condition to reconsider the unsettled items after the election of the new government.

"The Shiites and Kurds have agreed that the newly elected parliament after December 15 will reopen negotiations with the Sunni Arabs on the constitution. This step was enough to convince the Iraqi Islamic Party to drop its call for a Sunni Arab rejection fo the constitution in the October 15 referendum."

"Dr. Abdul Wahab Hamid Rashid write an article in Arabic about the new constitution. I have no time and ability to translate it , but I will post it in Arabic right here."

نقد مشروع الدستور العراقي

د. عبد الوهاب حميد رشيد

باحث عراقي مقيم في السويد

[ . . . ]
 

Sorry to have to disagree with your friend

"The US, the UK have never experienced occupation on their territories, so they have no collective memory about what it means to live under bombs"

On a few occasions Europe has been completely war-torn.

The UK was never occupied by the Nazis but at a massive price of nearly 500,000 lives in WWII and nearly 900,000 lives in WWI. There were also millions of casualties.

Don't forget the carpet bombing of the country's infrastructure and total economic hardship. The UK faced the most aggressive and advanced regime in modern history ......and survived to become one of the globes richest economies.

That is something to be proud of, not something to be ashamed of. There are still millions of people in the UK who survived that period of history and have a very good memory of suffering, pain and hardship.

I do not think that publishing sour letters such as this benefits your cause at all.
 

From the message posted by Dr. Khadduri at 9:24 AM (above):
"The US, the UK have never experienced occupation on their territories, so they have no collective memory about what it means to live under bombs, to be occupied. Neither do they understand that when there is occupation, there will be resistance."
Out of our good fortune is born the most terrible ignorance.
 

Jim oba87: Colonialism paid rich dividends.
 

Actually, colonialism continues to pay rich dividends.

Hit the Send Button; Did You Know This About Iraq?: "Did you know that half of all Iraqi households still don't have access to clean water?

"Did you know that only 8% of Iraqi households outside Baghdad are connected to sewage networks?

"Did you know that out of 81 water and sewage treatment projects planned as part of the reconstruction effort, 68 have been abandoned?

"Did you know that the power in Baghdad is out for 14 hours a day?

"Did you know that 330 reconstruction contractors, mostly Iraqis, have been killed?

"Did you know that a quarter out of every dollar allocated for reconstruction is being spent on security instead?

"Did you know that Iraq's oil production is lower than before the 2003 war, and 46% lower than before the 1991 Gulf War?

"Did you know that nearly $100 million in US taxpayer-funded reconstruction money for Iraq is unaccounted for? [This figure is far too low. Other estimates of missing funds range from $1 billion to $8.8 billion .]

"Did you know that the unemployment / underemployment rate in Iraq stands at 50% ?

"Did you know that all 11 multinational firms working through the Iraqi Project and Contracting Office have 'cost-plus' contracts, which guarantee that they will be paid all of their costs, no matter how high they go, plus a profit?

"Did you know that expenses for construction of one water treatment plant under a 'cost plus' contract have grown from $80 billion to $200 billion, with taxpayers, not the contractor, making up the difference?
 

Thanks Evelyn but I have noticed that your response is not constructive. As we all know, the riches of big business and politicians will never the millions dead, injured or disabled.

The fact that the UK has never been over-run by aggressive and forward thinking regimes is a tribute
 

Jim oba, It is the UK's greatest good fortune not to have been over-run. A tribute?

Constructive:
- Restore Iraq to Iraqis.
- Educate ourselves about the consequences of our imperialistic militaristic arrogance.
- Demand that the media tell us the truth.
- Make war reparations.
- Haul Bush & Blair (and the other warmongers) before the International Court of Justice.
- Impeach Bush (You Brits decide what to do about Blair).
- Defang the military
- Restore the Rule of Law
- End torture
- End the rape of Mother Earth (or your grandchildren, Jim, will have no future)
- Learn humility
- Practice what we preach
- And, frankly, Jim, I think telling the truth about our plunder of Iraq is constructive!
 

Above, one vital item omitted (among dozens of others):

- Apologize on bended knee to Iraqis for what we have inflicted upon them. Jim, that includes you and me. For by our silence we condone & embolden the forces of evil.
 

Imperial Hacks: Right and Left; The Two-Headed Monster: "Corrupted by wealth and power, your government is like a restaurant with only one dish. They've got a set of Republican waiters on one side and a set of Democratic waiters on the other side. But no matter which set of waiters brings you the dish, the legislative grub is all prepared in the same Wall Street kitchen." (Huey Long)
 

Britain & US in lockstep -
Christian Science Monitor, Britain unveils new antiterrorism legislation (Recall that Nelson Mandela once was defined as a "terrorist".)
 

The Independent, Iraq has descended into anarchy, says Fisk
 

Wayne Madsen Report, October 13, 2005 -- GOP scandals engulf Senate Majority Leader: "Tennessee Senator Bill Frist's personal records have been subpoenaed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as part of its probe of the Senate Majority Leader for possible insider trading in shares of Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) stock. HCA is a Frist family enterprise, having been founded by the senator's father and brother. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has been indicted on three criminal counts in Texas and faces a Federal probe of his activities in relation with indicted GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff. ..."
 

Lost in Iraq, Without a Map: "It’s no longer simply the case that U.S. goals in Iraq cannot be achieved; right now U.S. goals in Iraq cannot even be clearly defined. Strip away President Bush’s bumper-sticker bromides about 'staying the course' and fighting 'Islamo-fascism,'and what remains is a gaping vacuum in real-world strategy. ..."
 

"Why is it so necessary to write a new constitution for Iraq now?" - dunno
 

John Pilger, We need to be told: "When will important journalists cease to be establishment managers and analyse and confront the critical part they play in the violence of rapacious governments? ...

[ . . . ]

"With British-supplied* Hawk jets and machine-guns, Suharto's army went on to crush the life out of a quarter of the population of East Timor: 200,000 people. Using the same Hawk jets and machine-guns, the same genocidal army is now attempting to crush the life out of the resistance movement in West Papua and protect the Freeport company, which is mining a mountain of copper in the province. (Henry Kissinger is 'director emeritus'.) Some 100,000 Papuans, 18 per cent of the population, have been killed; yet this British-backed 'project', as new Labour likes to say, is almost never reported.

"What happened in Indonesia, and continues to happen, is almost a mirror image of the attack on Iraq. Both countries have riches coveted by the west; both had dictators installed by the west to facilitate the passage of their resources; and in both countries, blood-drenched Anglo-American actions have been disguised by propaganda willingly provided by journalists prepared to draw the necessary distinctions between Saddam's regime ('monstrous') and Suharto's ('moderate' and 'stable').

"Since the invasion of Iraq, I have spoken to a number of principled journalists working in the pro-war media, including the BBC, who say that they and many others 'lie awake at night' and want to speak out and resume being real journalists. I suggest now is the time."
---------------------
* Jim oba87, pls. note
 

Extract
Chris Floyd, Moscow Times, "Humankind received yet another harsh message from its landlord last week": "In the agony of Kashmir, in the laments of Guatemala, the planet once again laid down the hard truths of its brutal gospel: The earth doesn't love you. The earth doesn't need you. The earth doesn't know you are here.

"So where is the human factor in this vast indifferent planetary engine? Obviously, our accelerating rapine of the earth is destabilizing global weather patterns, exacerbating killer storms, bringing droughts here and floods there, quietly targeting untold millions of people living on the coastlines of rising oceans. But this, too, doesn't trouble the earth; its mechanics grind on irregardless of the particular mixture of heat and gases fed into the system. If the oceans boil, they boil; if nations starve, they starve; if the human community tears itself to pieces in a vicious war of all-against-all for dwindling resources -- as even the Pentagon now predicts for the coming century, The Guardian reports -- why then, so be it. The aftermath rain will still lash the survivors lying in the open without food, shelter or medicine; it won't ask who supported the Kyoto Treaty or who voted for President George W. Bush.

"Although we've already passed the tipping point on global warming, we could still mitigate some of the effects, we could lessen the blow -- but we won't. Too many of those meaningless divisions bind us: too much greed, too much self-righteousness, too much ignorance and fear.

"And as in all disasters, those with political pull will benefit most from 'reconstruction' aid. In Sri Lanka, poor villagers are being banned from re-settling on tsunami-hit beachfronts for 'safety reasons' -- yet their land is being given to developers for five-star hotels, the Guardian reports. In New Orleans, the feasting on the dead by Bush cronies has grown so brazen that Washington has now been forced to re-bid some of the early pork payoffs, The New York Times reports. This is largely a show to allay public outrage, of course; billions more will remain safely stuffed in Bushist coffers.

At every turn, human greed compounds our suffering. The urge to eat each other alive for power and profit, to consign whole sections of the common human family to degradation and exposure is a cruel mimicry of the planetary indifference that shadows us all. Of course, the earth isn't human, it has no capacity for conscience and compassion -- but what's our excuse for cruelty?"
 

USINFO.STATE.GOV: Bush Tells Troops in Iraq They Are "Part of an Historic Mission"
 

Well Heidi, is being against Iraq occupation equal to hating the WEST. If it is so the majority of us westerns hate the west. Even in United Sates of America. Have you ever seen the polls made in different countries?

Heidi you and your side persons should understand what Saddam did and what Americans are now doing are not anymore equal matters. Saddam has been long time in prison. When US now bombs and kills a ten person family “by mistake” or shoots a family in their car, what has it to do with Saddam? If Americans torture those ten of thousands Iraqi prisoners they hold, what has it to do with Saddam? Fiasco in Iraq is US’s own fault. If there had been better planning and a clear open plan of “giving” Iraq back to Iraqis the history of the last two years would be different.

But now, the funds of Iraq have vanished, USA companies employ cheap Asian labour to build their permanent bases because they do not trust the Iraqis, unemployment is over 50 percent, the “brilliant” US interference in the Constitution writing has de facto divided the country in three parts etc (a long list) who can say that this was a successful “nation building”. Interesting the reason of the failure in the pro-war Anglo-American minds are everybody else than them selves and their own behaviour. Al-Qaida, mystery man Zargawi, Iran and Syria, Sunnis, leftists and liberals at home are guilty not the brutal and narrow minded leaders and soldiers.

Face the reality Heidi and admit that Iraq war was never started for the “democracy in Middle East” and mission given beyond the stars has failed.
 

"Apologize on bended knee to Iraqis for what we have inflicted upon them. Jim, that includes you and me. For by our silence we condone & embolden the forces of evil"

Frankly Evelyn, I disagree and you have no grounds to ask anyone else to do that
 

AUDIO (4 minutes): Take One: President Bush via Satellite (Preparing the troops for an 'informal' chat with the President)

Voters said to hunt for polling sites in west Iraq: "Hours before a crucial referendum on a new constitution, voters in western Iraq , where many are expected to say 'No,' were asking themselves a troubling question: where are the polling stations?

"'There are no voting centers in cities like Haditha, Hit, Rawa, Qaim, Ana, Baghdadi and the villages around them,' Mahmoud Salman al-Ani, a human rights activist in Ramadi, said on Friday, listing locations across western Anbar province.

"'There aren't actually any voting centers or even voting sheets in these cities ... Nobody knows how and where to vote if they decide to,' he said of the predominantly Sunni Arab region."


Statement of Sheikh Majeed Al-Gaood, Secretary General of WAHAJ El-Iraq (WE) & spokesman of the Patriotic, National & Islamic Front, Iraq Referendum on Constitution: Illegal Legislation: "Those who turn their heads away from the truth, that the constitution is part of the occupation, part which is playing an important role in the agenda for destroying Iraq, & those who deceive the people, by urging them to participate in the coming referendum, are as if they were asking Iraqis to vote on the legitimacy of the aggression , invasion, destruction of Iraq, and voting on the devastated, divided Iraq wanted by the Americans. ..."
 

Hannu, I accept that our positions on apology and forgiveness differ.

----------------------
Harold Pinter, Recipient of 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature
The following speech was given in October 2002 on receiving an honorary degree at the University of Turin.
Extract, The American Administration Is A Bloodthirsty Wild Animal: "America is at this moment developing advanced systems of 'weapons of mass destruction' and is prepared to use them where it sees fit. It has more of them than the rest of the world put together. It has walked away from international agreements on biological and chemical weapons, refusing to allow inspection of its own factories. The hypocrisy behind its public declarations and its own actions is almost a joke.

"America believes that the 3,000 deaths in New York are the only deaths that count, the only deaths that matter. They are American deaths. Other deaths are unreal, abstract, of no consequence.

"The 3,000 deaths in Afghanistan are never referred to. The hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children dead through American and British sanctions which have deprived them of essential medicines are never referred to.

"The effect of depleted uranium, used by America in the Gulf war, is never referred to. Radiation levels in Iraq are appallingly high. Babies are born with no brain, no eyes, no genitals. Where they do have ears, mouths or rectums, all that issues from these orifices is blood.

"But what a misjudgment of the present and what a misreading of history this is. People do not forget. They do not forget the death of their fellows, they do not forget torture and mutilation, they do not forget injustice, they do not forget oppression, they do not forget the terrorism of mighty powers. They not only don't forget: they also strike back.

"The planned war against Iraq is in fact a plan for premeditated murder of thousands of civilians in order, apparently, to rescue them from their dictator."
------------------------

Website, HaroldPinter.org
 

Harold Pinter, House of Commons Speech - October 2002: ". . . Mr Bush and his gang do know what they're doing and Blair, unless he really is the deluded idiot he often appears to be, also knows what they're doing. They are determined, quite simply, to control the world and the world's resources. And they don't give a damn how many people they murder on the way. And Blair goes along with it.

"The 'special relationship' between the USA and the United Kingdom has, in the last twelve years, brought about the deaths of thousands upon thousands of people in Iraq, Afghanistan and Serbia. All this in pursuit of the American and British 'moral crusade', to bring 'peace and stability to the world'.

"Tony Blair's contemptible subservience to this criminal American regime demeans and dishonours this country."
 

Iraqis Catch 2 Americans Trying To Ignite Car Bomb: "A number of Iraqis apprehended two Americans disguised in Arab dress as they tried to blow up a booby-trapped car in the middle of a residential area in western Baghdad on Tuesday.

"Five minutes after the arrival of the Iraqi puppet police on the scene a large force of US troops showed up and surrounded the area. They put the two Americans in one of their Humvees and drove away at high speed to the astonishment of the residents of the area."
 

Hannu (more):
Having acknowledged our difference on the matter of apology, I'm wondering about your response to the proposed constructive actions which preceded, namely:
- Restore Iraq to Iraqis.
- Educate ourselves about the consequences of our imperialistic militaristic arrogance.
- Demand that the media tell us the truth.
- Make war reparations.
- Haul Bush & Blair (and the other warmongers) before the International Court of Justice.
- Impeach Bush
- Defang the military
- Restore the Rule of Law
- End torture
- End the rape of Mother Earth
- Learn humility
- Practice what we preach
 

Author of the book "Kill! Kill! Kill!", Ex-US Marine Asks Iraqis for Forgiveness: "I spent long hours speechless and looking at the wall, seeing nothing but only images of the killed Iraqis."
 

THE IRAQI CONSTITUTION: A Referendum for Disaster (Intro. paras. only):
** The constitutional process culminating in Saturday's referendum is not a sign of Iraqi sovereignty and democracy taking hold, but rather a consolidation of U.S. influence and control. Whether Iraq's draft constitution is approved or rejected, the decision is likely to make the current situation worse.

** The ratification process reflects U.S., not Iraqi urgency, and is resulting in a vote in which most Iraqis have not even seen the draft, and amendments are being reopened and negotiated by political parties and elites in Baghdad as late as four days before the planned referendum.

** The proposed constitution would strip Iraqis of future control over their nation's oil wealth by opening all new oil exploration and production to foreign oil companies.

** The imposition of federalism as defined in the draft constitution undermines Iraqi national consciousness and sets the stage for a potential division of Iraq largely along ethnic and religious lines, with financial, military, and political power devolving from the central government to the regional authorities. All groups risk sectoral as well as national interests.

** Human rights, including women's rights, individual political and civil rights, economic and social rights, religious rights, minority rights, all remain at risk.

** Instead of balancing the interests of Iraq's diverse population by referencing its long- dominant secular approaches, the draft constitution reflects, privileges and makes permanent the current occupation-fueled turn towards Islamic identity.
 

Saddam to claim sovereign immunity - lawyer: "'He had full immunity under the prevailing Iraqi constitution and you cannot have a retroactive legislation that removes that immunity.'

"'A fundamental element of having justice is to see that there is a fair and impartial trial,' [the lawyer] told the BBC. 'That I think is not happening in Iraq now.'

"The BBC said Saddam's defence team has just received an 800-page bundle outlining the prosecution case.

"The report said many of the pages they have been sent are unreadable and they still have no charge details."
 

Brian Klug, The Nation, The Myth of the New Anti-Semitism: "Imagine if Israel were the same in every essential respect as the state that exists today, including its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, except in its religious identity. Suppose it were Catholic, like the Crusader states that Europeans created in the Middle East in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Let us call this imaginary state 'Christiania' instead of 'Israel.' Would Christiania be accepted into the bosom of the region more readily than Israel has been? I doubt it. Would the animosity felt toward Christiania be qualitatively different from, or significantly less than, the hostility now directed at Israel? Again, I think not. Any differences would be a matter of nuance. In fact, Israel is often called a 'crusader state' in Arab and Muslim circles. In a way, this says everything about the Israeli-Arab and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. Crusader states, like the imaginary Christiania, were Christian; the State of Israel is Jewish. But the underlying hostility toward it in the region is not hostility toward the state as Jewish but as a European interloper or as an American client or as a non-Arab and non-Muslim entity; moreover, as an oppressive occupying force. Some people see this disposition toward Israel as anti-imperialist or anticolonialist, others as chauvinist or xenophobic. But in and of itself, it is not anti-Semitic."


(Note: The following article first appeared May 2004)
Ahmed Amr, NileMedia.com, Will the Times pay for its crimes?: "Once you stop accepting the ruse that Chalabi duped either the New York Times or the OSP, you are left with The Office of Special Plans as the tip of the spear in a plot to bombard the American people with Weapons of Mass Deception. "


October 2005
Ahmed Amr, NileMedia.com, The Public's Right to Know All About Judith Miller: "If Judy ever finds herself inclined to concede the public's right to know, she can start by telling her fellow citizens all about her designated role in the Plame games. If that day ever comes, Miller should consider writing a book on the role of the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans in manufacturing intelligence to make the case for invading Iraq.

"The first chapter would include detailed profiles of Paul Wolfowitz, Ahmed Chalabi, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Lewis 'Scooter Libby', Elliot Abrams, John Bolton and William Lutti. Judith Miller can give us a little background on how and when these actors teamed up to make the case for this war of choice. Why did Wolfowitz and Feith set up the Office of Special Plans and staff it with neocon ideologues affiliated with the American Enterprise Institute - a front for the Israeli Lobby that masquerades as a think tank?"


Justin Raimondo, Antiwar.com, AIPAC and Espionage: Guilty as Hell: "The plea bargain struck by former Pentagon analyst Lawrence A. Franklin – charged with five counts of handing over classified information to officials of a pro-Israel lobbying group, who passed it on to Israeli diplomatic personnel – has delivered a body blow to the defense of the two remaining accused spies. Steve Rosen, who for 20 years was the chief lobbyist over at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and Keith Weissman, AIPAC's top foreign policy analyst, befriended Franklin and pumped him for top-secret information – including sensitive data about al-Qaeda, the Khobar Towers terrorist attack, Iran's weapons program, and attacks on U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Now they face the likely prospect of Franklin testifying to their treason in court."

[ . . . ]

"Israel's legendary Mossad intelligence service, with its reputation for both efficiency and ruthlessness, reportedly shadowed the 9/11 hijackers on American soil as they prepared to launch the biggest terrorist attack in our history. Multiple sources reported a large-scale surveillance operation directed at U.S. government buildings, including offices of the Drug Enforcement Agency, the FBI, U.S. courthouses, and some military bases and research facilities. The AIPAC spy cell in Washington was the brain, and the "Israeli art students" – whose movements shadowed the hijackers in Florida and elsewhere – were the arms and feet of a subterranean creature whose dimensions we are only just beginning to discover."
 

(Note Today, 10/14/05, in addition to the two following stories, Wayne Madsen reports a further three, primarily of U.S. consequence, but important for what they tell us about the nature of "politics" in the United States. Highly recommended, as is all of Wayne's work.)
Wayne Madsen Report October 14, 2005 -- Opus Dei connected to former U.S. Marine spy in Dick Cheney's office: "Classified documents were being used to foment an Opus Dei-backed coup against Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Read full article."


Wayne Madsen Report October 14, 2005 -- Neo-con/Likud parallel intelligence and covert operations strike inside Syria: "A covert team of U.S., Israeli, right-wing Phalangist Lebanese, and paid Syrian provocateurs have attempted to cover up their role in carrying out car bombings of Lebanese politicians by assassinating Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan on October 12. Informed Middle East sources report that Kanaan's knowledge of the covert group's assassinations of Lebanese Christian leader Elie Hobeika in 2002 and former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and former Lebanese Communist Party leader George Hawi earlier this year.

"Hobeika was assassinated by a powerful car bomb after he revealed he possessed videotapes and documents proving the involvement in Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his military units in the massacre of Palestinians at Sabra and Shatilla in Beirut in 1982. Hobeika had planned to testify against Sharon at a war crimes tribunal in Brussels. Hariri was killed in a similar car bomb last February after he met with leaders of Hezbollah and expressed his opposition to the construction of a U.S. air base in northern Lebanon. Last June, car bombs killed Hawi and Samir Qasir, a popular journalist.

"The UN chief investigator in the assassination of Hariri, Detlev Mehlis of Germany, interviewed Kanaan before his death. The 'suicide' of Kanaan was spun by the main stream media to make it appear that he took his own life because of 'guilt' for his involvement in the Lebanese political assassinations stemming from his long-time role as Syria's viceroy in Lebanon. However, Kanaan was close to Hariri, as well as with a group of career government Arabists in the U.S. government who have been opposed to the neo-con agenda of expanding the Iraq war to Syria and Iran. Kanaan was in a position to know the details of the Pentagon/Likud plot to undermine the Syrian regime by carrying out bombings of popular Lebanese politicians and then laying blame on Damascus.

"Kanaan was also likely aware of the identities of rogue Syrian intelligence agents who helped the covert U.S., Israeli, and Lebanese teams in carrying out the car bombings in Lebanon. One person identified as being responsible for ordering the hit on Hobeika was Assef Shawkat, the number two man in Syrian intelligence.

"Recently, amid the tanking of popular support for the occupation of Iraq, the neocons in Washington, the US Mission to the UN in New York, and Jerusalem have ratcheted up their war of words against Syria. Mehlis is being pressured by John Bolton's neocon mini-cabal in Manhattan to lay total blame for the Hariri assassination on Bashar Assad's government. Bolton is being aided in the anti-Syrian propaganda campaign by U.S. ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, and Douglas Feith's successor as Undersecretary of Defense for Policy and Plans Eric Edelman. The neo-con cell operating inside the Pentagon also includes an influential Lebanese-American right-wing component."
 

Faiza, A Family in Baghdad, "I discovered that there were many constitutions in Iraq . . ."
 

What more is there to say? In a few hours time the next orchestrated steps of the neocon dance take center stage. Holding Iraqis in my heart, my fervent wish is that you orchestrate your own dance.
 

10/14/05 NewsHour on PBS:

JUAN COLE: "Well, I think it's important that politics is working and I think it's also important toward what goal it is working. I'm a pessimist on this process, and I'm a severe critic of this constitution. Professor Dawisha was polite in the way he put it, but it's full of trapdoors.

RAY SUAREZ: The constitution?

JUAN COLE: The constitution is full of trapdoors. There will be a provision that says revenues will be shared between the provinces and the federal government. In what way will they be shared? Well, there will be a law passed by subsequent parliament that will determine that.

So in many instances the people who are voting for this constitution have no idea what exactly it is, the substance that they're voting for. The constitution allows provincial confederations which have claims on resources and perhaps on enormous resources.

It would be as though Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico could form a confederacy, and then they could tell Washington, well, you're not going to be getting as much tax money from our oil as you used to, and moreover, if you want to talk to Austin, you have to go through our confederal parliament and our prime minister.

The last time we had a confederacy in this continent it caused a lot of trouble. And I'm very concerned that these provisions in the constitution could lead to such a weak central government and to such strong provinces that there will be centrifugal forces breaking the country apart.....

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/july-dec05/iraq_10-14.html
 

The referendum is a travesty.
 

Uruknet site has been down for a few hours. Why today of all days ?
 

Riverbend, The Referendum...: [ . . . ]

Iraq’s Arab identity, due to its Arab majority, won’t be reduced just because it isn’t stated over and over again in a constitution. It’s as if the people negotiating the constitution chose to focus on the minute, leaving the more important issues aside. Issues like guaranteeing Iraq’s unity and guaranteeing that it won’t be turned into an Islamic state modeled on Iran.

The referendum is only hours away and the final version of the constitution still hasn’t reached many people. Areas with a Sunni majority are complaining that there aren’t polling stations for kilometers around- many of these people don’t have cars and even if they did, what good would it do while there’s a curfew until Sunday? Polling stations should be easily accessible in every area.

This is like déjà vu from January when people in Mosul and other Sunni areas complained that they didn’t have centers to vote in or that their ballot boxes never made it to the counting stations.

American media is trying to make it sound like Sunnis have suddenly been mollified with the changes made in a flurry of covert meetings these last few days, but the reality is that the only Sunni party openly supporting the constitution is the Iraqi Islamic Party which represents a very, very small percentage of Sunnis.

Most educated Iraqis want to vote against the constitution. This makes the fact that Iraqis abroad aren’t being allowed to vote this time around worrisome. Why was it vital for them to vote for a temporary government back in January but it’s not necessary for them to contribute to this referendum which will presumably decide a permanent constitution for generations and generations of Iraqis? Could it be that the current Iranian inclined government knew that many Iraqis abroad didn’t like the constitution because of federalism, women’s rights, and the mention of no laws to be placed which contradict Islam?

Iraqis are going to be voting according to religious clerics and, in some areas, tribal sheikhs. They aren’t going to be voting according to their convictions or their understanding of what is supposed to be a document that will set the stage for Iraqi laws and regulations. Juan Cole wrote about an example of this with Muqtada Al-Sadr’s followers:

The young Shiite nationalist, Muqtada al-Sadr, advised his followers to consult the ruling of Ayatollah Kadhim al-Haeri (resident in Qom, Iran) concerning how to deal with the constitution. He said that this was an issue that required independent juridical reasoning (ijtihad).

That’s all we need- it’s not enough that Zalmay Khalilzad is gushing over the constitution- all we need now is another cleric (stationed in Iran this time) to influence the masses.

 

Najma, A Star from Mosul, Voted... Not me though: "An hour ago, dad came back from the mosque and said that the voting center is open. I went upstairs, changed my clothes, prayed and came down to go out with the family.

"We went out to vote.. I and HNK are under the legal age, but we went out all together. The neighbors were out, waiting in the streets, men and women.

"'They say a bus will come and pick us up to the voting center' said a neighbor.. And so we waited.. Few minutes later, the bus came and we all went up. It wasn't enough and so each 3 sat on 2 seats.

"We went to the school which was the voting center.. There were many people there, three queues, two for men and one for women. It took us about half an hour there, men were being searched, we weren't and so the women's queue was quick. A policeman came and said we can vote here even if we've registered elsewhere, another one then came and said not to bother ourselves if we've registered elsewhere 'cause we won't be able to vote here.. This made some babbling in the queue, an ING said that we can, 'Just do not believe anyone'. One can't believe that at the same 5 minutes, all this happens. Mom decided more than once, to drop the queue and go out since she wasn't sure that they would accept us here, but the other women told her to stay 'Stay, they'll change their minds' was what they told us.

"After about half an hour, and with the help of our neighbor who has already voted, we knew we can vote. Our turn came, mom went in with us, she voted for herself and dad (Who was waiting outside for his turn, but since mom had his ID card, she could vote for him).. They even gave us 3 voting cards, by mistake, but we returned the third.

"Mom then called dad and told him that he can come out. We all met outside the school, then went into the bus from which tens of people were coming down, and in which everyone seemed more relieved for finishing the job. When we got home, more neighbors were ready to come in.. Buses were a good idea!

"My uncle's family didn't vote, they said the Imam told them it's a responsibility to vote, and they should read the constitution first, but as most of the Iraqis in Mosul, they didn't get a copy of it. In fact, I heard no one saying that they have! Other uncles, however, went out and voted.

"One thing I know for sure, the things that happened in the morning made our neighborhood more determined to go out and vote..

"I read the BBC in the morning: 'The BBC's James Reynolds in Baghdad says Kurds and the majority Shia Arabs are expected to approve the constitution, while Sunni Arabs - who make up a disaffected minority - are likely to either vote No or stay at home.'

"Seeing the numbers of voters, the number of women and men, gave me an assurance that the media outside is biased. Sunnis went out to vote, 2 times in the morning the Peshmargah came and closed the voting center, but it was re-opened. ..."

[ . . . ]
 

Owing to an hacking problem, the website www.uruknet.info is temporarily out of use.
In any case, you can visit the site through the mirroring site, www.uruknet.com
 

LargeTurnout for Iraq Constitution Vote

Bush administration eagerly awaits Iraq vote results
 

Photos from Iraq, 15 October 2005

UN official accuses US of starving Iraqi civilians
 

Extract
Best bet: Dividing Iraq: "It seems that Bush’s admin has finally found the solution: 'Divide Iraq' and then pit the three mini states created against one another. It's not the first time something like this happened.

"Nearly two years ago, The New York Times published an editorial carrying Leslie Gelb's by-line. He's an influential man who presided over the Council of Foreign Affairs, a think tank that brings together the CIA and the secretary of state.

"Gelb's plan simply suggests replacing Iraq with three mini-states: 'Kurds in the north, Sunnis in the center and Shiites in the south,' so as to 'put most of its money and troops where they would do the most good quickly -- with the Kurds and Shiites. The United States could extricate most of its forces from the so-called Sunni Triangle, north and west of Baghdad.... American officials could then wait for the troublesome and domineering Sunnis, without oil or oil revenues, to moderate their ambitions or suffer the consequences.' In other words, strip the Sunnis of the country’s wealth and thus break their determination to prevent the U.S. from pursuing its imperialistic agenda.

"Dividing Iraq has been an old Israeli dream. In 1982, Oded Yinon, an official from the Israeli Foreign Affairs office, wrote: 'To dissolve Iraq is even more important for us than dissolving Syria. In the short term, it's Iraqi power that constitutes the greatest threat to Israel. ...'"
 

Iraq and the Laws of War: "On 19 March 2003 President Bush Jr. commenced his criminal war against Iraq by ordering a so-called decapitation strike against the President of Iraq in violation of a 48-hour ultimatum he had given publicly to the Iraqi President and his sons to leave the country. This duplicitous behavior violated the customary international laws of war set forth in the 1907 Hague Convention on the Opening of Hostilities to which the United States is still a contracting party, as evidenced by paragraphs 20, 21, 22, and 23 of U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10 (1956). Furthermore, President Bush Jr.'s attempt to assassinate the President of Iraq was an international crime in its own right. Of course the Bush Jr. administration's war of aggression against Iraq constituted a Crime against Peace as defined by the Nuremberg Charter (1945), the Nuremberg Judgment (1946), and the Nuremberg Principles (1950) as well as by paragraph 498 of U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10 (1956).

"Next came the Pentagon's military strategy of inflicting 'shock and awe' upon the city of Baghdad. To the contrary, article 6(b) of the 1945 Nuremberg Charter defined the term 'War crimes' to include: '. . . wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity. . .' The Bush Jr. administration's infliction of 'shock and awe' upon Baghdad and its inhabitants constituted the wanton destruction of that city, and it was certainly not justified by 'military necessity,' which is always defined by and includes the laws of war. Such terror bombings of cities have been criminal behavior under international law since before the Second World War: Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Tokyo, Dresden, London, Guernica.
[ . . . ]

"In [a letter of May 8, 2003] from the United States and the United Kingdom to the President of the Security Council, both countries pledged to the Security Council that: 'The States participating in the Coalition will strictly abide by their obligations under international law, including those relating to the essential humanitarian needs of the people of Iraq.' ...
[ . . . ]

". . .[T]he United States government never had any 'sovereignty' in the first place to transfer to its puppet Interim Government of Iraq. In Iraq the sovereignty still resides in the hands of the people of Iraq and in the state known as the Republic of Iraq, where it has always been. ...

"This brings the analysis to the so-called Constitution of Iraq that was allegedly drafted by the puppet Interim Government of Iraq under the impetus of the United States government. Article 43 of the 1907 Hague Regulations on land warfare flatly prohibits the change in a basic law such as a state's Constitution during the course of a belligerent occupation: 'The authority of the legitimate power having in fact passed into the hands of the occupant, the latter shall take all the measures in his power to restore, and ensure as far as possible, public order and safety, while respecting, unless absolutely prevented, the laws in force in the country.' This exact same prohibition has been expressly incorporated in haec verba into paragraph 363 of U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10 (1956). To the contrary, the United States has demonstrated gross disrespect toward every law in Iraq that has stood in the way of its imperial designs and petroleum ambitions, including and especially the pre-invasion 1990 Interim Constitution for the Republic of Iraq."
[ . . . ]
 

Interview with Salah Almukhtar, responding to the following questions:

1- What is your position about the occupation, the resistance and the so called "political process" and the constitution?
2- Abroad the media give us the idea of a resistance made only by the zarqawi men. What is your assessment of the strength of the secular, pan Arab, patriotic resistance?
3- What you think is the political proposal of the resistance and how you think can be avoided a sort of social division between Sunni, shia, kurds etc?
4- What happened to the Baath party and the other pan Arab and nationalist parties?
5- Did they make any self criticism about the past?
6-What do you think about the presence of the Italian troops in Iraq and about the peace movement in our country?
7-What do you think about the refusal of the visas?
8-Have you already been in Italy in the past? and who did you meet in your official capacity?
9- Could you summarize your political? Literary and artistic life and your cultural an political position?
10-What do you think of the Palestinian question and of the Gaza withdrawal?
11- Do you think that the project of balkanization of Iraq will be extended to other Arab countries?
 

(NOTE: From the following interview only one question/answer is here extracted.)
DOEBBLER ON SADDAM HUSSEIN’S TRIAL: "THE SITUATION IS RIDICULOUS" -- Malcom Lagauche: "With Saddam Hussein’s trial quickly approaching, much speculation has been made of the event. Most agree that it will be a mockery and the court has already made up its mind to execute the Iraqi President. Recently, I had the privilege of interviewing international human rights lawyer Curtis Doebbler for the second time. He is part of the legal team working for the defense. However, neither he nor any member of the defense team has been able to meet with the President. The following are Dr. Doebbler’s statements about the fairness of the upcoming trial."

ML: A recent editorial in an Australian newspaper read, "Iraq is a mess. There’s only one person who can straighten it out and unfortunately, he’s in a 12’ x 12’ cell." What are your thoughts about that statement?

CD: The President of Iraq was somebody whom many people respected in that country and was somebody who had to deal with a very difficult situation in that country.

I’ll tell you one thing. Everybody I’ve met inside and out of Iraq who is Iraqi has, even if they don’t agree with him and even in some ways if they hated him, they still have respect for his ability to have held the country together in very difficult circumstances. Governing a country is not an easy thing to do.

And moreover, in most places in the world, but particularly in the Middle East, because of the oppression of the people there in many different countries because of the colonial attitude that has existed, the people have a very strong resilience to dealing with their own problems and wanting to be governed by their own people.

Think about it in America. Who would you rather be governed by? A person who isn’t perhaps the best person or somebody who’s invaded your country and taken over the country from outside.
 

(I wish I knew how further to abbreviate Wayne's report without doing it serious bodily harm!)
Wayne Madsen Report, October 15, 2005 -- [ . . . ]

In February 2005, while the neo-cons were rattling the sabers with Iran, a CIA team made contact with Iranians across the northern Afghan border inside Iran. This border area is extremely remote and porous. Afghan Uzbeks loyal to ex-Communist warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum, whose base of operations is Mazar-e-Sharif, are involved in a number of cross-border operations, including arms and heroin smuggling. It was through this network of Uzbeks and Iranians that the CIA was able to obtain documents on Iran's nuclear program, information that proved that Iran's nuclear capability had still not achieved weapons-grade status. That, of course, is not what the neocons in the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans and a sister unit in the Israeli Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem wanted to hear.

On February 3, 2005, after having secured sensitive documents on Iran's nuclear program, two CIA agents boarded a Kam Air Boeing 737-200 flight from Herat, near the Iranian border, to Kabul. The agents were anxious to get the documents to Langley. They and the documents never made it.

The Boeing crashed at an altitude of 11,000 feet on the summit of Chaperi Mountain, 20 miles east of Kabul. The plane's 104 passengers and crew, including the two CIA agents, were killed. Although the Pentagon's web site claims the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force made several attempts to look for survivors by helicopter but that these efforts were unsuccessful. In reality, a Pentagon Strategic Support Branch team did land at the crash site and found the bodies of the two CIA agents and grabbed the Iranian documents and quickly departed before Afghan ground troops appeared on the scene.

Curiously, even though the documents recovered by the Pentagon team from the bodies of the CIA agents were intact, the cockpit voice recorder was never recovered. In addition, the flight recorder's previous 25 hours of data prior to the crash was erased. Afghan Transport Minister Enayatullah Qasemi said the cause of the crash was a mystery. Add to the mystery the fact that General Dostum, the reported owner of Kam Air, was appointed Chief of Staff of the Afghan Armed Forces in March. It was an appointment that surprised many U.S. intelligence and foreign policy observers. Another layer of intrigue was a reported assassination attempt against Dostum in Shebergan a few days before the Kam Air crash. Although the Taliban claimed responsibility, it was reported that Dostum, unlike other Afghan leaders, maintained a degree of contact with ousted Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.

Kam Air, which began operations in November 2003 and which used Boeings and Russian-built Antonovs, as well as Russian crews, was also believed to have links to the international Russia-based weapons smuggler Viktor Bout. Kam Air's aircraft came from Bout's international fleet of planes. In addition to its domestic routes, Kam Air flew from Kabul to Dubai and Istanbul. A U.S. embassy spokeswoman in Kabul confirmed that there were six Americans on the plane but she declined to provide details.

The loss of the Iranian documents was another body blow for the CIA. It had already suffered the loss (by execution) of one high level agent as a result of the CIA leak and a number of its informants were rolled up by counter-espionage services.

Given the connections between Dostum, Bout, Afghan heroin and weapons smugglers and their networks in Turkey and the Balkans, the Russian-Ukrainian-Israeli Mafia (RUIM) based in Switzerland, Russia, and Israel, and Scooter Libby, it would appear that Valerie Plame and her network were targeted by key White House and Pentagon players as part of a much larger attempt to disable the CIA in its pursuit of not only WMD proliferation but also a network of money laundering and weapons of limited destruction and drug smuggling with tentacles reaching deep inside the Bush administration.

From "Hayden's Heroes," WMR Special Report:

During the last year of the Clinton administration, Viktor Bout was a number one SIGINT target for NSA. However, after Condoleezza Rice took over as National Security Adviser under Bush, she issued a change in orders on Bout. "Look and listen but don't touch" was the new policy. Ever since, Bout has flouted INTERPOL and Belgian and French arrest warrants. Although the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Bout's companies on April 26, 2005 and froze his corporate assets, one of Bout's airlines, Irbis, continued to operate from a U.S.-controlled airbase in northern Iraq. Other Bout companies, which use a fleet of aging Soviet-era military cargo planes, are contracted to a network of seedy multinational private military contractors operating in Iraq. Bout's global enterprises closely intersect with the diamond, white slave trade, arms, and other illicit activities of Israel's Russian Mafia, made up of some 80 Russian and Ukrainian Jewish billionaires and millionaires who have escaped to Israel to avoid prosecution in and extradition to Russia and other countries. Considering the close association between leading neo-conservatives like Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby to fugitive Marc Rich, who is linked to the crime syndicates in Israel, a reason for Rice's dictate "Look and listen but don't touch," with regard to Bout, becomes abundantly clear.
 

Patrick Cockburn, "This Constitution Won't Get Me a Job"

Nothing New Going On Here; POW Abuse by the US
(Which, frankly & unfortunately, proves once again that history is written by the victors.)
 

Robert Parry, Consortiumnews.com, Bush Feared 'Looking Weak' on Iraq: "Less than two months before invading Iraq, George W. Bush fretted that his war plans could be disrupted if United Nations weapons inspectors succeeded in gaining Saddam Hussein’s full cooperation, possibly leaving Bush 'looking weak,' according to notes written by a secretary to British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

"But Bush’s deeper worry was that chief U.N. arms inspector Hans Blix would conclude that Hussein’s government was cooperating in the search for weapons of mass destruction, thus delaying or blocking U.S.-led military action. ..."
[ . . . ]


Robert Parry, Consortiumnews.com, Bush's New Iraq War Lies: "With his earlier war rationales shattered, George W. Bush now says the Iraq War must be continued indefinitely because of the presence of foreign Islamic fighters – even though they are estimated to represent only a tiny fraction of the Iraqi insurgency and might well quit the struggle if U.S. troops were to leave Iraq.

"In an Oct. 6 speech aimed at rallying U.S. public support for the Iraq War, Bush painted a harrowing picture of the consequences that would follow an American withdrawal. Bush warned of 'a radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia' and the strategic isolation of the United States.

"Bush’s alarmist vision, however, clashes with both recent intelligence assessments on the significance of foreign fighters to the Iraq War and fears expressed in an intercepted letter purportedly written by al-Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman Zawahiri to al-Qaeda’s chief in Iraq, Abu Musab Zarqawi. [ . . . ]

"There is also the historical fact that Muslim nations have succeeded, again and again, in suppressing Islamic radical movements as long as Western powers have not gotten too directly involved." [ . . . ]
 

Great excitement, folks -
CNN will announce preliminary referendum results at 10 PM Eastern, meaning just two (2) hours from now!!! (What their inside track is, nobody knows. Certainly not me.)
 

In the meantime, Evelyn, have fun with this little video:

http://www.tian.cc/2005/10/cnnn-on-streets-of-america.html

I don't know where you live, but it seems none of us are safe :)
 

Claude, I suppose it really doesn't matter too much who we invade. The important thing is that we DO! That, after all, is the job of the world's policepeople.